Determining and/or using location information in an ad system

ABSTRACT

The usefulness, and consequently the performance, of advertisements are improved by allowing businesses to better target their ads to a responsive audience. Location information, such as country, region, metro area, city or town, postal zip code, telephone area code, etc. is determined (or simply accepted) and used. For example, location information may be used in a relevancy determination of an ad. As another example, location information may be used in an attribute (e.g., position) arbitration. Such location information may be associated with price information, such as a maximum price bid. Such location information may be associated with ad performance information. Ad performance information may be tracked on the basis of location information. The content of an ad creative, and/or of a landing page may be selected and/or modified using location information. Finally, tools, such as user interfaces, may be provided to allow a business to enter and/or modify location information, such as location information used for targeting and location-dependent price information.

§ 1. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

§ 1.1 Field of the Invention

The present invention concerns advertising. In particular, the presentinvention concerns improving advertising using location information.

§ 1.2 Related Art

Advertising using traditional media, such as television, radio,newspapers and magazines, is well known. Unfortunately, even when armedwith demographic studies and entirely reasonable assumptions about thetypical audience of various media outlets, advertisers recognize thatmuch of their ad budget is simply wasted. Moreover, it is very difficultto identify and eliminate such waste.

Recently, advertising over more interactive media has become popular.For example, as the number of people using the Internet has exploded,advertisers have come to appreciate media and services offered over theInternet as a potentially powerful way to advertise.

Advertisers have developed several strategies in an attempt to maximizethe value of such advertising. In one strategy, advertisers use popularpresences or means for providing interactive media or services (referredto as “Websites” in the specification without loss of generality) asconduits to reach a large audience. Using this first approach, anadvertiser may place ads on the home page of the New York Times Website,or the USA Today Website, for example. In another strategy, anadvertiser may attempt to target its ads to more narrow niche audiences,thereby increasing the likelihood of a positive response by theaudience. For example, an agency promoting tourism in the Costa Ricanrainforest might place ads on the ecotourism-travel subdirectory of theYahoo Website. An advertiser will normally determine such targetingmanually.

Regardless of the strategy, Website-based ads (also referred to as “Webads”) are often presented to their advertising audience in the form of“banner ads”—i.e., a rectangular box that includes graphic components.When a member of the advertising audience (referred to as a “viewer” or“user” in the Specification without loss of generality) selects one ofthese banner ads by clicking on it, embedded hypertext links typicallydirect the viewer to the advertiser's Website. This process, wherein theviewer selects an ad, is commonly referred to as a “click-through”(“Click-through” is intended to cover any user selection.). The ratio ofthe number of click-throughs to the number of impressions of the ad(i.e., the number of times an ad is displayed or otherwise rendered) iscommonly referred to as the “click-through rate” or “CTR” of the ad.

A “conversion” is said to occur when a user consummates a transactionrelated to a previously served ad. What constitutes a conversion mayvary from case to case and can be determined in a variety of ways. Forexample, it may be the case that a conversion occurs when a user clickson an ad, is referred to the advertiser's Web page, and consummates apurchase there before leaving that Web page. Alternatively, a conversionmay be defined as a user being shown an ad, and making a purchase on theadvertiser's Web page within a predetermined time (e.g., seven days). Inyet another alternative, a conversion may be defined by an advertiser tobe any measurable/observable user action such as, for example,downloading a white paper, navigating to at least a given depth of aWebsite, viewing at least a certain number of Web pages, spending atleast a predetermined amount of time on a Website or Web page, etc.Often, if user actions don't indicate a consummated purchase, they mayindicate a sales lead, although user actions constituting a conversionare not limited to this. Indeed, many other definitions of whatconstitutes a conversion are possible. The ratio of the number ofconversions to the number of impressions of the ad (i.e., the number oftimes an ad is displayed or otherwise rendered) is commonly referred toas the conversion rate. If a conversion is defined to be able to occurwithin a predetermined time since the serving of an ad, one possibledefinition of the conversion rate might only consider ads that have beenserved more than the predetermined time in the past.

The hosts of Websites on which the ads are presented (referred to as“Website hosts” or “ad consumers”) have the challenge of maximizing adrevenue without impairing their users' experience. Some Website hostshave chosen to place advertising revenues over the interests of users.One such Website is “Overture.com,” which hosts a so-called “searchengine” service returning advertisements masquerading as “searchresults” in response to user queries. The Overture.com Website permitsadvertisers to pay to position an ad for their Website (or a targetWebsite) higher up on the list of purported search results. If suchschemes where the advertiser only pays if a user clicks on the ad (i.e.,cost-per-click) are implemented, the advertiser lacks incentive totarget their ads effectively, since a poorly targeted ad will not beclicked and therefore will not require payment. Consequently, highcost-per-click ads show up near or at the top, but do not necessarilytranslate into real revenue for the ad publisher because viewers don'tclick on them. Furthermore, ads that viewers would click on are furtherdown the list, or not on the list at all, and so relevancy of ads iscompromised.

Search engines, such as Google for example, have enabled advertisers totarget their ads so that they will be rendered in conjunction with asearch results page responsive to a query that is relevant, presumably,to the ad. Although search result pages afford advertisers a greatopportunity to target their ads to a more receptive audience, searchresult pages are merely a fraction of page views of the World Wide Web.

Some online advertising systems may use ad relevance information anddocument content relevance information (e.g., concepts or topics,feature vectors, etc.) to “match” ads to (and/or to score ads withrespect to) a document including content, such as a Web page forexample.

The foregoing ad serving systems can be thought of as keyword-targetedsystems (where ads are targeted using terms found in a search query) andcontent-targeted systems (where ads are targeted using content of adocument). Although keyword-targeted and content-targeted ad systemshave improved the usefulness of ads, and consequently their performance(e.g., in terms of click-through rate, conversion rate, etc.), there isstill plenty of room for improvement. Such improvement can be expectedwith better targeting.

The Google keyword ad server allows advertisers to specify (e.g., forpurposes of targeting) one or more countries in which their ad may beserved. This permits ads to be served to particular users who presumablyspeak and understand a particular language. Unfortunately, however, manybusinesses have only a regional or local reach. For example, arestaurant may want to target ads only to potential customers within a30 minute drive. A dry cleaner may want to target ads only to potentialcustomers in the same town, and perhaps a few neighboring towns. Asanother example, a regional chain of drug stores may only want to targetads to potential customers living within their region. Even if suchbusinesses have ads that are relevant to a search query or a Web page,if the end user viewing a search results Web page or the content of aWeb page is outside the geographic reach of their business, the ads willnot be very useful and will not perform well. If ads only generaterevenue (e.g., for a content owner or ad system) when they perform well(e.g., if they are selected), such ads will generate little, if any,revenue.

Such businesses often advertise in local papers and the telephone bookyellow pages. While such conduits for advertisements are useful, theyare limited. Such businesses may also advertise on local Websites, butthis requires the business to find local Websites, and to track andmanage advertising on each of the Websites.

In view of the foregoing, there is a need for improving the usefulness,and consequently the performance, of advertisements. In particular,there is a need to allow businesses to better target their ads to aresponsive audience.

§ 2. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention improves the usefulness, and consequently theperformance, of advertisements. The present invention allows businessesto better target their ads to a responsive audience. The presentinvention may do so by determining and using location information, suchas country, region, metro area, city or town, postal zip code, telephonearea code, etc.

The present invention may also use location information when determininga relevancy score of an ad.

The present invention may also use location information in an attribute(e.g., position) arbitration. Such location information may beassociated with price information, such as a maximum price bid. Suchlocation information may be associated with ad performance information.

The present invention may also track ad performance information on thebasis of location information.

The present invention may select or modify the content of an adcreative, and/or of a landing page using location information. Forexample, location information may be inserted into an ad creative. Asanother example, different landing pages with different content can beused for different locations.

The present invention may also provide tools, such as user interfaces,to allow a business to enter and/or modify location information, such aslocation information used for targeting and location-dependent priceinformation.

§ 3. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a high-level diagram showing parties or entities that caninteract with an advertising system.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an environment in which, or with which,the present invention may operate.

FIG. 3 is a bubble diagram illustrating various operations that may beperformed, and various information that may be used and/or generated, bythe present invention.

FIG. 4 illustrates exemplary request information that is consistent withthe present invention.

FIG. 5 illustrates exemplary ad information that is consistent with thepresent invention.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method for performing an adselection operation in a manner consistent with the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method for performing a scoringoperation in a manner consistent with the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method for performing an admodification operation in a manner consistent with the presentinvention.

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method of performing userbehavior feedback operations in a manner consistent with the presentinvention.

FIG. 10 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method for performing adinformation entry and/or management operations in a manner consistentwith the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram of an exemplary apparatus that may performvarious operations in a manner consistent with the present invention.

§ 4. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present invention may involve novel methods, apparatus, messageformats, and/or data structures for obtaining and using geolocationinformation in an ad system. The following description is presented toenable one skilled in the art to make and use the invention, and isprovided in the context of particular applications and theirrequirements. Various modifications to the disclosed embodiments will beapparent to those skilled in the art, and the general principles setforth below may be applied to other embodiments and applications. Thus,the present invention is not intended to be limited to the embodimentsshown and the inventors regard their invention as any patentable subjectmatter described.

In the following, environments in which, or with which, the presentinvention may operate are described in § 4.1. Then, exemplaryembodiments of the present invention are described in § 4.2. Finally,some conclusions regarding the present invention are set forth in § 4.3.

§ 4.1 Environments in which, or with which, the Present Invention MayOperate

§ 4.1.1 Exemplary Advertising Environment

FIG. 1 is a high level diagram of an advertising environment. Theenvironment may include an ad entry, maintenance and delivery system(simply referred to as an ad server) 120. Advertisers 110 may directly,or indirectly, enter, maintain, and track ad information in the system120. The ads may be in the form of graphical ads such as so-calledbanner ads, text only ads, image ads, audio ads, video ads, adscombining one of more of any of such components, etc. The ads may alsoinclude embedded information, such as a link, and/or machine executableinstructions. Ad consumers 130 may submit requests for ads to, acceptads responsive to their request from, and provide usage information to,the system 120. An entity other than an ad consumer 130 may initiate arequest for ads. Although not shown, other entities may provide usageinformation (e.g., whether or not a conversion or click-through relatedto the ad occurred) to the system 120. This usage information mayinclude measured or observed user behavior related to ads that have beenserved.

The ad server 120 may be similar to the one described in FIG. 2 of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 10/375,900 (incorporated herein byreference), entitled “SERVING ADVERTISEMENTS BASED ON CONTENT,” filed onFeb. 26, 2003 and listing Darrell Anderson, Paul Bucheit, Alex Carobus,Claire Cui, Jeffrey A. Dean, Georges R. Harik, Deepak Jindal, andNarayanan Shivakumar as inventors. An advertising program may includeinformation concerning accounts, campaigns, creatives, targeting, etc.The term “account” relates to information for a given advertiser (e.g.,a unique e-mail address, a password, billing information, etc.). A“campaign” or “ad campaign” refers to one or more groups of one or moreadvertisements, and may include a start date, an end date, budgetinformation, geo-targeting information, syndication information, etc.For example, Honda may have one advertising campaign for its automotiveline, and a separate advertising campaign for its motorcycle line. Thecampaign for its automotive line have one or more ad groups, eachcontaining one or more ads. Each ad group may include targetinginformation (e.g., a set of keywords, a set of one or more topics,etc.), and price information (e.g., maximum cost (cost per click-though,cost per conversion, etc.)). Alternatively, or in addition, each adgroup may include an average cost (e.g., average cost per click-through,average cost per conversion, etc.). Therefore, a single maximum costand/or a single average cost may be associated with one or morekeywords, and/or topics. As stated, each ad group may have one or moreads or “creatives” (That is, ad content that is ultimately rendered toan end user.). Each ad may also include a link to a URL (e.g., a landingWeb page, such as the home page of an advertiser, or a Web pageassociated with a particular product or server). Consistent with thepresent invention, the ad information may include geolocation targetinginformation, geolocation performance information, and/or geolocationprice information Naturally, the ad information may include more or lessinformation, and may be organized in a number of different ways.

FIG. 2 illustrates an environment 200 in which the present invention maybe used. A user device (also referred to as a “client” or “clientdevice”) 250 may include a browser facility (such as the Explorerbrowser from Microsoft, the Opera Web Browser from Opera Software ofNorway, the Navigator browser from AOL/Time Warner, etc.), an e-mailfacility (e.g., Outlook from Microsoft), etc. A search engine 220 maypermit user devices 250 to search collections of documents (e.g., Webpages). A content server 210 may permit user devices 250 to accessdocuments. An e-mail server (such as Hotmail from Microsoft Network,Yahoo Mail, etc.) 240 may be used to provide e-mail functionality touser devices 250. An ad server 210 may be used to serve ads to userdevices 250. The ads may be served in association with search resultsprovided by the search engine 220. However, content-relevant ads may beserved in association with content provided by the content server 230,and/or e-mail supported by the e-mail server 240 and/or user devicee-mail facilities.

As discussed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/375,900 (introducedabove), ads may be targeted to documents served by content servers.Thus, one example of an ad consumer 130 is a general content server 230that receives requests for documents (e.g., articles, discussionthreads, music, video, graphics, search results, Web page listings,etc.), and retrieves the requested document in response to, or otherwiseservices, the request. The content server may submit a request for adsto the ad server 120/210. Such an ad request may include a number of adsdesired. The ad request may also include document request information.This information may include the document itself (e.g., page), acategory or topic corresponding to the content of the document or thedocument request (e.g., arts, business, computers, arts-movies,arts-music, etc.), part or all of the document request, content age,content type (e.g., text, graphics, video, audio, mixed media, etc.),geo-location information, document information, etc. Consistent with thepresent invention, the request may also include geolocation information,such as location information about an end user that submitted a searchquery.

The content server 230 may combine the requested document with one ormore of the advertisements provided by the ad server 120/210. Thiscombined information including the document content and advertisement(s)is then forwarded towards the end user device 250 that requested thedocument, for presentation to the user. Finally, the content server 230may transmit information about the ads and how, when, and/or where (suchas geolocation information) the ads are to be rendered (e.g., position,click-through or not, impression time, impression date, size, conversionor not, etc.) back to the ad server 120/210. Alternatively, or inaddition, such information may be provided back to the ad server 120/210by some other means. Consistent with the present invention, the adserver 120/210 may store ad performance information on the basis ofgeolocation information.

Another example of an ad consumer 130 is the search engine 220. A searchengine 220 may receive queries for search results. In response, thesearch engine may retrieve relevant search results (e.g., from an indexof Web pages). An exemplary search engine is described in the article S.Brin and L. Page, “The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual SearchEngine,” Seventh International World Wide Web Conference, Brisbane,Australia and in U.S. Pat. No. 6,285,999 (both incorporated herein byreference). Such search results may include, for example, lists of Webpage titles, snippets of text extracted from those Web pages, andhypertext links to those Web pages, and may be grouped into apredetermined number of (e.g., ten) search results.

The search engine 220 may submit a request for ads to the ad server120/210. The request may include a number of ads desired. This numbermay depend on the search results, the amount of screen or page spaceoccupied by the search results, the size and shape of the ads, etc. Inone embodiment, the number of desired ads will be from one to ten, andpreferably from three to five. The request for ads may also include thequery (as entered or parsed), information based on the query (such asgeolocation information, whether the query came from an affiliate and anidentifier of such an affiliate), and/or information associated with, orbased on, the search results. Such information may include, for example,identifiers related to the search results (e.g., document identifiers or“docIDs”), scores related to the search results (e.g., informationretrieval (“IR”) scores such as dot products of feature vectorscorresponding to a query and a document, Page Rank scores, and/orcombinations of IR scores and Page Rank scores), snippets of textextracted from identified documents (e.g., Web pages), full text ofidentified documents, topics of identified documents, feature vectors ofidentified documents, etc. Consistent with the present invention, therequest may also include geolocation information, such as locationinformation about an end user that submitted a search query.

The search engine 220 may combine the search results with one or more ofthe advertisements provided by the ad server 120/210. This combinedinformation including the search results and advertisement(s) is thenforwarded towards the user that submitted the search, for presentationto the user. Preferably, the search results are maintained as distinctfrom the ads, so as not to confuse the user between paid advertisementsand presumably neutral search results.

Finally, the search engine 220 may transmit information about the ad andwhen, where (e.g., geolocation), and/or how the ad was to be rendered(e.g., position, click-through or not, impression time, impression date,size, conversion or not, etc.) back to the ad server 120/210.Alternatively, or in addition, such information may be provided back tothe ad server 120/210 by some other means. Consistent with the presentinvention, the ad server 120/210 may store ad performance information onthe basis of geolocation information.

Finally, the e-mail server 240 may be thought of, generally, as acontent server in which a document served is simply an e-mail. Further,e-mail applications (such as Microsoft Outlook for example) may be usedto send and/or receive e-mail. Therefore, an e-mail server 240 orapplication may be thought of as an ad consumer 130. Thus, e-mails maybe thought of as documents, and targeted ads may be served inassociation with such documents. For example, one or more ads may beserved in, under over, or otherwise in association with an e-mail.

Although the foregoing examples described servers as (i) requesting ads,and (ii) combining them with content, one or both of these operationsmay be performed by a client device (such as an end user computer forexample).

§ 4.1.2 Definitions

“Geolocation information” may include information specifying one or moreof one or more countries, one or more (inter-country) regions, one ormore states, one or more metro areas, one or more cities, one or moretowns, one or more boroughs, one or more areas with common zip codes,one or more areas with common telephone area codes, one or more areasserved by common cable head end stations, one or more areas served bycommon network access points or nodes, etc. It may include latitudeand/or longitude, or a range thereof. It may include information, suchas an IP address, from which a user location can be estimated.

Online ads, such as those used in the exemplary systems described abovewith reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, or any other system, may have variousintrinsic features. Such features may be specified by an applicationand/or an advertiser. These features are referred to as “ad features”below. For example, in the case of a text ad, ad features may include atitle line, ad text, and an embedded link. In the case of an image ad,ad features may include images, executable code, and an embedded link.Depending on the type of online ad, ad features may include one or moreof the following: text, a link, an audio file, a video file, an imagefile, executable code, embedded information, etc.

When an online ad is served, one or more parameters may be used todescribe how, when, and/or where the ad was served. These parameters arereferred to as “serving parameters” below. Serving parameters mayinclude, for example, one or more of the following: features of(including information on) a page on which the ad was served, a searchquery or search results associated with the serving of the ad, a usercharacteristic (e.g., their geolocation, the language used by the user,the type of browser used, previous page views, previous behavior), ahost or affiliate site (e.g., America Online, Google, Yahoo) thatinitiated the request, an absolute position of the ad on the page onwhich it was served, a position (spatial or temporal) of the ad relativeto other ads served, an absolute size of the ad, a size of the adrelative to other ads, a color of the ad, a number of other ads served,types of other ads served, time of day served, time of week served, timeof year served, etc. Naturally, there are other serving parameters thatmay be used in the context of the invention.

Although serving parameters may be extrinsic to ad features, they may beassociated with an ad as serving conditions or constraints. When used asserving conditions or constraints, such serving parameters are referredto simply as “serving constraints” (or “targeting criteria”). Forexample, in some systems, an advertiser may be able to target theserving of its ad by specifying that it is only to be served onweekdays, no lower than a certain position, only to users in a certaingeolocation, etc. As another example, in some systems, an advertiser mayspecify that its ad is to be served only if a page or search queryincludes certain keywords or phrases. As yet another example, in somesystems, an advertiser may specify that its ad is to be served only if adocument being served includes certain topics or concepts, or fallsunder a particular cluster or clusters, or some other classification orclassifications.

“Ad information” may include any combination of ad features, ad servingconstraints, information derivable from ad features or ad servingconstraints (referred to as “ad derived information”), and/orinformation related to the ad (referred to as “ad related information”),as well as an extension of such information (e.g., information derivedfrom ad related information).

A “document” is to be broadly interpreted to include anymachine-readable and machine-storable work product. A document may be afile, a combination of files, one or more files with embedded links toother files, etc. The files may be of any type, such as text, audio,image, video, etc. Parts of a document to be rendered to an end user canbe thought of as “content” of the document. A document may include“structured data” containing both content (words, pictures, etc.) andsome indication of the meaning of that content (for example, e-mailfields and associated data, HTML tags and associated data, etc.) Adspots in the document may be defined by embedded information orinstructions. In the context of the Internet, a common document is a Webpage. Web pages often include content and may include embeddedinformation (such as meta information, hyperlinks, etc.) and/or embeddedinstructions (such as Javascript, etc.). In many cases, a document has aunique, addressable, storage location and can therefore be uniquelyidentified by this addressable location. A universal resource locator(URL) is a unique address used to access information on the Internet.

“Document information” may include any information included in thedocument, information derivable from information included in thedocument (referred to as “document derived information”), and/orinformation related to the document (referred to as “document relatedinformation”), as well as an extensions of such information (e.g.,information derived from related information). An example of documentderived information is a classification based on textual content of adocument. Examples of document related information include documentinformation from other documents with links to the instant document, aswell as document information from other documents to which the instantdocument links.

Content from a document may be rendered on a “content renderingapplication or device”. Examples of content rendering applicationsinclude an Internet browser (e.g., Explorer or Netscape), a media player(e.g., an MP3 player, a Realnetworks streaming audio file player, etc.),a viewer (e.g., an Abobe Acrobat pdf reader), etc.

A “content owner” is a person or entity that has some property right inthe content of a document. A content owner may be an author of thecontent. In addition, or alternatively, a content owner may have rightsto reproduce the content, rights to prepare derivative works of thecontent, rights to display or perform the content publicly, and/or otherproscribed rights in the content. Although a content server might be acontent owner in the content of the documents it serves, this is notnecessary.

“User information” may include user behavior information and/or userprofile information. It may also include a user's geolocation, or anestimation of the user's geolocation.

“E-mail information” may include any information included in an e-mail(also referred to as “internal e-mail information”), informationderivable from information included in the e-mail and/or informationrelated to the e-mail, as well as extensions of such information (e.g.,information derived from related information). An example of informationderived from e-mail information is information extracted or otherwisederived from search results returned in response to a search querycomposed of terms extracted from an e-mail subject line. Examples ofinformation related to e-mail information include e-mail informationabout one or more other e-mails sent by the same sender of a givene-mail, or user information about an e-mail recipient. Informationderived from or related to e-mail information may be referred to as“external e-mail information.”

Various exemplary embodiments of the present invention are now describedin § 4.2.

§ 4.2 EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 3 is a bubble diagram illustrating various operations that may beperformed by the present invention, and various information that may beused and/or generated by the present invention. An ad selectionoperation 310 may be used to generate a set of ads 340 using adinformation 330 and request information 320. In an exemplary embodimentof the present invention, the set of ads 340 may include ads relevant tothe request information 320. For example, if the request information 320is associated with a search query, the ads 340 may be relevant to termsof the search query. Alternatively, if the request information 320 isassociated with a document to be served, the ads 340 may be relevant tocontent of the document. In any event, the request information 320 mayinclude geolocation information. For example, the request information320 may include geolocation of an end user that submitted a search queryor document request (or some other entity, such as a cable head end, anetwork access point, etc., associated with the request), or informationfrom which such geolocation information can be derived. Exemplary datastructures that may be used to store request information 320 and adinformation 330 are described in § 4.2.1 below with reference to FIGS. 4and 5, respectively. Exemplary methods that may be used to perform thead selection operation 310 are described in § 4.2.2 below with referenceto FIG. 6.

Still referring to FIG. 3, a scoring operation 350 may be used togenerate a set 360 of ads and associated scores using the first set 340of ads and ad information 330. The scoring operation 350 may considergeolocation information, such as geolocation performance information,and/or geolocation price information for example, of the ads. Exemplarymethods that may be used to perform the scoring operation 350 aredescribed in § 4.2.2 below with reference to FIG. 7.

Ad modification operations 370 may be used to generate a set 380 of adswith location specific creative content, and/or a location specificlanding page from the set 360 of ads. Although not shown, the admodification operations 370 may use geolocation information. Exemplarymethods that may be used to perform the ad modification operations 370are described in § 4.2.2 below with reference to FIG. 8.

The ad information 330 may include geolocation-based performanceinformation. Such information may be provided, and/or tracked by userbehavior feedback operations 390. Exemplary methods that may be used toperform the user behavior feedback operations are described in § 4.2.2below with reference to FIG. 9.

Finally, the ad information 330 may include geolocation targeting,and/or geolocation price information. This information may be enteredand/or modified by advertisers, or their representatives via adinformation entry and/or management operations 335. Exemplary methodsthat may be used to perform these operations 335 are described in §4.2.2 below with reference to FIG. 10.

The present invention need not provide, and/or use all of the operationsand information described with reference to FIG. 3. The presentinvention need not perform the operations in the order shown. Finally,the present invention may combine, or separate functionality describedwith respect to the various operations. For example, the selection andscoring operations 310 and 350 may be combined into a single operation.

§ 4.2.1 Exemplary Data Structures

FIG. 4 illustrates exemplary ad request information 320′ that isconsistent with the present invention. The ad request information 320′may include information such as that described in § 4.1.1 above.Further, the ad request information may include end user (or some otherentity, simply referred to as “end user” in the specification)geolocation information, or information from which end user geolocationcan be derived or estimated. For example, the end user geolocationinformation may include one or more of a country, a region (e.g.,pacific coast, north-east, mid-Atlantic, south-west, etc.), a state, ametro area (e.g., San Francisco Bay Area, Metro District of ColumbiaArea, etc.), a city, a town, a postal zip code, a telephone area code,etc.

The geolocation information may be encoded in various ways. For example,a country identifier may be a two character code such as thosedetermined by the International Organization for Standardization(“ISO”). The region identifier may be a six character code such as thosedetermined by UTF8. Thus, the country and region can be encoded usingthe ISO 3166-2/1999 standard which is a two letter country code followedby a “-” and 1-3 alphanumeric characters. The ISO 3166-2/1999 standardcode can be mapped to a numerical identifier (e.g., in the range of20001-30000). New regions can be assigned a numerical identifierappended to the end. In one embodiment of the present invention, morethan 200 countries and 1300 regions are uniquely identified. The metroarea identifier may be based on the DMA standard. In one embodiment,metro areas can cross state lines. Accordingly, in such an embodiment, ametro area is not necessarily “contained” within a state. Since the samecity or town name can be used for different cities or towns in differentstates, such information should be used in combination with stateinformation to avoid ambiguity. Postal zip codes can be encoded as a5-digit integer, or extended with 4 or more digits. Telephone area codesmay be encoded as a three-digit integer. Other ways of encodinggeolocation information are possible.

The present invention may be used to derive or estimate geolocationinformation from other information. For example, the present inventionmay use known techniques (such as that used by the “NetAcuity” productfrom Digital Envoy of Norcross, Ga.) to map Internet protocol (“IP”)address and/or domain information to geolocation information. As anotherexample, Internet service providers may have many dial-in accessservers, each associated with a telephone area code. As yet anotherexample, an end user's location might be inferred from a regional term(e.g., hoagie, hero, grinder, sub) entered by the user. If multiplefactors are used to infer geolocation, but lead to inconsistentlocations, each without a desired level of confidence, a more general,consistent location, can be used. Alternatively, the present inventionmay simply accept previously derived or provided geolocationinformation. For example, the end user, or a client device used by theend user, may have voluntarily provided geolocation information. Asanother example, the geolocation information may have been derived andprovided by a third party.

FIG. 5 illustrates exemplary ad information 330′ that is consistent withthe present invention. The ad information 330′ may include informationsuch as that described in § 4.1.1 above. For example, the ad information330′ may include a unique ad identifier, ad creative content (or apointer to such creative content), and/or a landing page link, etc.Further, the exemplary ad information 330′ may include at least one ofgeolocation targeting information and geolocation price information.Geolocation performance information (not shown) may be tracked andassociated with the ad.

Geolocation targeting information may include one or more countries, oneor more regions, one or more states, one or more metro areas, one ormore cities, one or more towns, one or more postal zip codes, and/or oneor more telephone area codes, etc. Thus, for example, a business sellingirrigation systems can target its ads to the states California, Nevada,Arizona and New Mexico, while a business selling snow blowers can targetits ads to states, such as Maine and Minnesota for example, withrelatively significant snowfall. A dry cleaner can target its ads to thetown in which it is located, as well as neighboring towns, and/orvarious postal zip codes, and/or various telephone area codes. Aprofessional sports team can target ads for tickets and/or merchandiseto a metro area. A national shipping company can target its ads to acountry.

Geolocation price information may include price information for each ofone or more countries, one or more regions, one or more states, one ormore metro areas, one or more cities, one or more towns, one or morepostal zip codes, and/or one or more telephone area codes, etc. Theprice information should correspond to the geolocation targetinginformation.

In one embodiment of the present invention, geolocation targetinginformation can be inferred from geolocation price information. Forexample, if an advertiser submits a maximum bid per impression of $1.50for the geolocation DC metro, it may be assumed that the advertiserwants to target its ads to end users in the DC metro area. Similarly, ifthe advertiser submits a bid per impression of $0.00 for a given state,it may be assumed that the advertiser wants to avoid serving its ads toend users in the state. For example, if a car insurance provider islicensed to provide insurance in all states except for New Jersey, andis not as interested in writing less profitable policies in Florida, itcan provide the following geolocation price information:

-   United States: $1.00/impression;-   New Jersey: $0.00/impression; and-   Florida: $0.15/impression.    As will be described in more detail with reference to FIG. 7 below,    a scoring operation 350 may weigh more specific geolocation price    information more than less specific geolocation price information.

§ 4.2.2 Exemplary Methods

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method 310′ for performing a adselection operation 310 in a manner consistent with the presentinvention Request information and ad information is accepted. (Block610) The request information may include, among other things, end usergeolocation information. The advertising information may include, amongother things, geolocation targeting information. As indicated by loop620-640, an act is performed for each of one or more ads. Morespecifically, a relevancy measure of the ad is determined using at leastgeolocation information associated with the request information andgeolocation targeting information associated with the ad. (Block 630)After each of the one or more ads have been processed, the method 310′is left. (Node 650)

The relevancy of the ad may be determined using keyword targetinginformation associated with the ad, ad relevance information associatedwith the ad, etc. In any event, the relevancy of the ad may bedetermined using, at least, geolocation information of the request andthe ad. The more specific the geolocation information that matches, themore relevant, at least in terms of location, the ad is. Thus, forexample, if an end user submitted a search query from San Diego,assuming all other relevancy factors are equal, an ad with geotargetingfor San Diego may be more relevant than an ad with geotargeting forCalifornia, which may be more relevant for an ad with geotargeting forthe West Coast, which may be more relevant for an ad with geotargetingfor the United States.

Naturally, geolocation targeting may be just one of a number ofrelevancy factors. For example, ad relevancy may also consider (a) acomparison of ad relevancy information to the content of a documentrequested, (b) ad keyword targeting with respect to terms of a searchquery, (c) user demographic information, (d) user behavior information,(e) time/date/season targeting information, etc.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method 350′ for performing ascoring operation 350 in a manner consistent with the present invention.The second score may be used to determine a relative presentationattribute (e.g., size, position, color, volume, etc.) of the ad. Adinformation of candidate ads is accepted. (Block 710) As indicated byloop 720-740, an act is performed for each of one or more ads. Morespecifically, an ad score is determined using at least one of priceinformation, geolocation price information (if available), performanceinformation, and geolocation performance information (if available).(Block 730) Once all of the candidate ads are processed, the method 350′is left. (Node 750)

There are a number of ways to determine an ad score consistent withblock 730. A few exemplary ways are described below. If an ad systemwants to maximize revenue, it may determine a score by multiplying aprice per performance value by the performance of the ad. For example,it may determine cost per click*click-through rate, or cost perconversion*conversion rate. Prices may be discounted or adjusted. Thepresent invention can advantageously use geolocation information, ifavailable, to improve a revenue estimate. For example, suppose the enduser to which the ad will be directed is located in San Diego. Supposefurther that the following otherwise equally relevant ads have theassociated information shown:

-   -   Ad A: max cost per click=$0.25;        -   max cost per click=$1.00 in San Diego;        -   CTR=0.02 in United States;        -   CTR=0.04 in California;        -   CTR=0.20 in San Diego.    -   Ad B: max cost per click=$0.50;        -   max cost per click=$2.00 in Florida;        -   CTR=0.07 in United States;        -   CTR=0.02 in California;        -   CTR=0.02 in San Diego.            Without geolocation scoring, a simple product score for ad A            would be 0.0050 (=0.25*0.02), while that for ad B would be            0.0350 (=0.50*0.07). With geolocation scoring, a simple            product score for ad A would be 0.20 (=1.00*0.20), while            that for ad B would be 0.01 (=0.50*0.02). Thus, without            geolocation information, ad B would score higher than ad A,            but with geolocation information ad A would score higher            than ad B. For example, ad A may be for a restaurant in San            Diego, while ad B might be for a pool construction company            with a large presence in Florida. By using geolocation            information, the present invention may advantageously serve            ad A with some preference over ad B since it may normally be            more useful for an end user in San Diego.

In one embodiment of the present invention, if more specific geolocationprice information is not available, more general geolocation priceinformation may be used in the determination of a score. Similarly, ifmore specific geolocation performance information is not available, moregeneral geolocation performance information may be used. Thus, forexample, an ad with only geolocation price and performance informationfor California may compete with an ad with geolocation price andperformance information for Sacramento when serving an ad request withSacramento geolocation information.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method 370′ for performing anad modification operation 370 in a manner consistent with the presentinvention. Ad information and/or request geolocation information isaccepted. (Block 810) Request geolocation information may be provided inthe creative content of the ad, and/or the ad may be provided withgeolocation-dependent content (e.g., one of a number of candidate admarketing messages may be selected using geolocation information).(Block 820) Alternatively, or in addition, request geolocationinformation may be provided in the content of a landing page, and/orgeolocation-dependent content may be provided in the ad landing page(e.g., one of a number of candidate landing pages may be selected usinggeolocation information). (Block 830)

Referring back to block 820, the content of an ad creative may bemodified by modifying text or by selecting one of a number of candidatetexts. For example, assume that an ad request indicated that the enduser is in Tampa Fla., and assume that an ad for a Honda Car Dealer wastargeted to Tampa Fla. The normal ad creative may read, “Attention CarBuyers . . . Best Prices on Accords . . . Hundreds in Stock.” Themodified ad creative may read, “Attention Tampa Car Buyers . . . BestPrices on Accords in Tampa.” The geolocation information may simply beadded to, or replace a portion of, the ad creative. The geolocationinformation may be used to select a number of candidate ad creatives.

Referring back to block 830, the one of a plurality of ad landing pagesmay be selected based on geolocation information. For example, if thegeolocation information of the request indicates that the end user islocal, a retailer may have a landing page emphasizing the message “Visitour Local Showroom to see the latest merchandize.” If, on the otherhand, the geolocation information of the request indicates that the enduser is remote, a retailer may have a landing page emphasizing “BestPrices on the Web. Free Shipping through the end of July.”

Alternative or in addition to generating creative content targetedtowards a specific location (e.g., “Find this at Office Depot on SanAntonio Road/El Camino”), advertisement attributes may be determinedusing location information. For example, pricing can be determined using“local” competition, local demographics (e.g. income by zip code), orlocal buying habits. Prices and/or products may be specific to alocation (e.g. a query for “NYC” yields an ad “Fly to JFK from SFO for$199”).

Thus, by using geolocation information, the present invention can beused to adapt a marketing message to the location of an end user toperceive the ad.

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method 390′ for performing userbehavior feedback operation 390 in a manner consistent with the presentinvention. Recall from scoring operation 350 that geolocation specificperformance information may be used in determining a score for an ad.The method 390′ of FIG. 9 is one way to track such information. Eachtime an ad is served, this event may be identified by a unique processidentifier (e.g., ad server IP address, a date and a time of day). Theprocess identifier may be associated with any geolocation targetinginformation used when serving the ad, or geolocation information of therelevant request. The ad may be served with its process identifier.(Block 910) As indicated by event block 920, different branches of themethod 390′ may be performed in response to different events. Forexample, if user behavior information is received, the received userbehavior information is associated with the process identifier (andtherefore the geolocation information, if any, used when originallyserving the ad) (Block 930) before the method 390′ branches back toevent block 920. If a condition for updating performance information ismet (e.g., the receipt of performance information, the receipt of acertain amount of performance information, a time expiration since thelast update, an absolute time/date, etc), the ad performance informationis updated considering geolocation targeting information, or geolocationrequest information associated with the ad serving process (Block 940),before the method 390′ branches back to event block 920.

Thus, the method 390′ can be used to track ad performance informationaccounting for geolocation information that may have been used whenserving the ad. Various alternative ways of associating geolocationinformation with performance information are possible.

FIG. 10 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method 335′ of performing adinformation entry and/or management operations in a manner consistentwith the present invention. Recall from FIG. 5 that ad information 330′may include one or more of geolocation targeting information andgeolocation price information. The method 330′ accepts authorized and/orauthenticated user input. (Block 1010) As indicated by event block 1020,various branches of the method 335′ may be performed in response tovarious input types. If the user inputs geolocation price information,geolocation price information is added or updated. (Block 1030)Associated geolocation targeting information may also be populated orrevised in accordance with the price information. (Block 1040) Forexample, if a user enters a maximum price per click of $0.80 forCalifornia, and if the ad does not include geolocation targeting forCalifornia, such information may be added. If the user later changesthis maximum price per click for California to $0.00, the geolocationtargeting for California may be turned off or removed. Referring back toblock 1020, if the user inputs geolocation targeting information, thegeolocation targeting information is added or updated. (Block 1050)Associated geolocation price information may be requested (Block 1060)but need not be provided.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the advertiser userinterface can be location specific.

In one embodiment of the present invention, if an advertiser inputsgeolocation targeting information, it may be advisable to have themremove location modifiers used in keyword targeting.

In one embodiment of the present invention, advertisers may be limitedin the number and/or combination of types of geolocation informationentered.

Other features of the advertiser user interface may be provided to makeentering and/or managing advertising information more convenient. Forexample, if any advertiser has an existing campaign, but wants to add ageolocation targeted campaign, bulk importing support may be provided sothat the advertiser does not need to re-enter common advertisinginformation. Help features may be used to suggest additional geolocationinformation (more of the same type, more specific, more general, etc.)in response to entered geolocation information. For example, if theadvertiser enters a postal zip code, they may be provided with one ormore towns, regions, etc.

§ 4.2.3 Exemplary Apparatus

FIG. 11 is high-level block diagram of a machine 1100 that may performone or more of the operations discussed above. The machine 1100basically includes one or more processors 1110, one or more input/outputinterface units 1130, one or more storage devices 1120, and one or moresystem buses and/or networks 1140 for facilitating the communication ofinformation among the coupled elements. One or more input devices 1132and one or more output devices 1134 may be coupled with the one or moreinput/output interfaces 1130.

The one or more processors 1110 may execute machine-executableinstructions (e.g., C or C++ running on the Solaris operating systemavailable from Sun Microsystems Inc. of Palo Alto, Calif. or the Linuxoperating system widely available from a number of vendors such as RedHat, Inc. of Durham, N.C.) to effect one or more aspects of the presentinvention. At least a portion of the machine executable instructions maybe stored (temporarily or more permanently) on the one or more storagedevices 1120 and/or may be received from an external source via one ormore input interface units 1130.

In one embodiment, the machine 1100 may be one or more conventionalpersonal computers. In this case, the processing units 1110 may be oneor more microprocessors. The bus 1140 may include a system bus. Thestorage devices 1120 may include system memory, such as read only memory(ROM) and/or random access memory (RAM). The storage devices 1120 mayalso include a hard disk drive for reading from and writing to a harddisk, a magnetic disk drive for reading from or writing to a (e.g.,removable) magnetic disk, and an optical disk drive for reading from orwriting to a removable (magneto-) optical disk such as a compact disk orother (magneto-) optical media.

A user may enter commands and information into the personal computerthrough input devices 1132, such as a keyboard and pointing device(e.g., a mouse) for example. Other input devices such as a microphone, ajoystick, a game pad, a satellite dish, a scanner, or the like, may also(or alternatively) be included. These and other input devices are oftenconnected to the processing unit(s) 1110 through an appropriateinterface 1130 coupled to the system bus 1140. The output devices 1134may include a monitor or other type of display device, which may also beconnected to the system bus 1140 via an appropriate interface. Inaddition to (or instead of) the monitor, the personal computer mayinclude other (peripheral) output devices (not shown), such as speakersand printers for example.

§ 4.2.4 Alternatives

Different geolocation information may have different scope, and somegeolocation information may contain other geolocation information.Generally, for purposes of determining ad relevancy, a match of morespecific geolocation information (e.g., town) may be weighted moreheavily than a match of less specific geolocation information (e.g.,country). Generally, for purposes of ad scoring, the most specificgeolocation price and/or performance information that matches will beused. That is, if an ad has price and performance information for bothSan Diego and California, if the request geolocation informationindicates an end user in San Diego, the San Diego price and performanceinformation will be used. If on the other hand, the request geolocationinformation indicates an end user in Sacramento, the California priceand performance information will be used. If the request geolocationinformation indicates an end user in Omaha, Nebr., neither will be used.

There are many different ways to score ads. Some examples include (a)using a distance between a presence of the advertiser and the end user,(b) using a local availability of an item sought by the end user, (c)using an advertiser attributes (e.g. a location of the advertiser'sclosest retail outlet), etc. Ads can be ordered and/or priced usinglanguage criteria (e.g., query/display language, information derivedabout user or advertiser's language such as location of user inJapantown).

Although some examples above used geolocation information as a currentlocation of the user, the geolocation information may be a location thatthe user is interested in.

§ 4.3 CONCLUSIONS

In view of the foregoing, the present invention allows more relevant adsto be served by using location information.

1. A method for determining a relevancy of an ad to a request, themethod comprising: a) accepting inter-country geolocation informationassociated with the request; b) comparing the accepted inter-countrygeolocation information associated with the request with geolocationtargeting information associated with the ad to generate a comparison;and c) determining the relevancy of the ad using at least thecomparison.
 2. The method of claim 1 wherein the request furtherincludes search terms, and wherein the act of determining the relevancyof the ad further uses a comparison of keyword targeting associated withthe ad and the search terms.
 3. The method of claim 1 wherein therequest further includes document relevance information, and wherein theact of determining the relevancy of the ad further uses a comparison ofad relevance information and the document relevance information.
 4. Themethod of claim 1 wherein the inter-country geolocation informationincludes at least one of (a) at least one region, (b) at least onestate, (c) at least one metro area, (d) at least one city, (e) at leastone town, (f) at least one postal zip code, and (g) at least onetelephone area code.
 5. A method for determining a score of an ad, themethod comprising: a) accepting geolocation information associated witha request; b) determining whether the ad has geolocation priceinformation corresponding to the geolocation information accepted; andc) if it is determined that the ad has geolocation price informationcorresponding to the geolocation information accepted, then determiningthe score using at least the geolocation price information.
 6. Themethod of claim 5 wherein the geolocation information includes at leastone of (a) at least one country, (b) at least one region, (c) at leastone state, (d) at least one metro area, (e) at least one city, (f) atleast one town, (g) at least one postal zip code, and (h) at least onetelephone area code.
 7. A method for determining a score of an ad, themethod comprising: a) accepting geolocation information associated witha request; b) determining whether the ad has geolocation performanceinformation corresponding to the geolocation information accepted; andc) if it is determined that the ad has geolocation performanceinformation corresponding to the geolocation information accepted, thendetermining the score using at least the geolocation performanceinformation.
 8. The method of claim 7 wherein the geolocationinformation includes at least one of (a) at least one country, (b) atleast one region, (c) at least one state, (d) at least one metro area,(e) at least one city, (f) at least one town, (g) at least one postalzip code, and (h) at least one telephone area code.
 9. A method forserving an ad, the method comprising: a) accepting geolocationinformation associated with a request; b) determining whether the ad hasgeolocation ad creative information corresponding to the geolocationinformation accepted; and c) if it is determined that the ad hasgeolocation creative information corresponding to the geolocationinformation accepted, then serving the ad with the geolocation creativeinformation.
 10. The method of claim 9 wherein the geolocationinformation includes at least one of (a) at least one country, (b) atleast one region, (c) at least one state, (d) at least one metro area,(e) at least one city, (f) at least one town, (g) at least one postalzip code, and (h) at least one telephone area code.
 11. A method forserving an ad, the method comprising: a) accepting geolocationinformation associated with a request; b) determining whether the ad hasgeolocation landing page information corresponding to the geolocationinformation accepted; and c) if it is determined that the ad hasgeolocation landing page information corresponding to the geolocationinformation accepted, then serving the ad with a link to the geolocationlanding page.
 12. The method of claim 11 wherein the geolocationinformation includes at least one of (a) at least one country, (b) atleast one region, (c) at least one state, (d) at least one metro area,(e) at least one city, (f) at least one town, (g) at least one postalzip code, and (h) at least one telephone area code.
 13. Apparatus fordetermining a relevancy of an ad to a request, the apparatus comprising:a) an input for accepting inter-country geolocation informationassociated with the request; b) means for comparing the acceptedinter-country geolocation information associated with the request withgeolocation targeting information associated with the ad to generate acomparison; and c) means for determining the relevancy of the ad usingat least the comparison.
 14. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein therequest further includes search terms, and wherein the means fordetermining the relevancy of the ad further uses a comparison of keywordtargeting associated with the ad and the search terms.
 15. The apparatusof claim 13 wherein the request further includes document relevanceinformation, and wherein the means for determining the relevancy of thead further uses a comparison of ad relevance information and thedocument relevance information.
 16. The apparatus of claim 13 whereinthe inter-country geolocation information includes at least one of (a)at least one region, (b) at least one state, (c) at least one metroarea, (d) at least one city, (e) at least one town, (f) at least onepostal zip code, and (g) at least one telephone area code.
 17. Apparatusfor determining a score of an ad, the apparatus comprising: a) an inputfor accepting geolocation information associated with a request; b)means for determining whether the ad has geolocation price informationcorresponding to the geolocation information accepted; and c) means fordetermining the score using at least the geolocation price informationif it is determined that the ad has geolocation price informationcorresponding to the geolocation information accepted.
 18. The apparatusof claim 17 wherein the geolocation information includes at least one of(a) at least one country, (b) at least one region, (c) at least onestate, (d) at least one metro area, (e) at least one city, (f) at leastone town, (g) at least one postal zip code, and (h) at least onetelephone area code.
 19. Apparatus for determining a score of an ad, theapparatus comprising: a) an input for accepting geolocation informationassociated with a request; b) means for determining whether the ad hasgeolocation performance information corresponding to the geolocationinformation accepted; and c) means for determining the score using atleast the geolocation performance information if it is determined thatthe ad has geolocation performance information corresponding to thegeolocation information accepted.
 20. The apparatus of claim 19 whereinthe geolocation information includes at least one of (a) at least onecountry, (b) at least one region, (c) at least one state, (d) at leastone metro area, (e) at least one city, (f) at least one town, (g) atleast one postal zip code, and (h) at least one telephone area code. 21.Apparatus for serving an ad, the apparatus comprising: a) an input foraccepting geolocation information associated with a request; b) meansfor determining whether the ad has geolocation ad creative informationcorresponding to the geolocation information accepted; and c) means forserving the ad with the geolocation creative information if it isdetermined that the ad has geolocation creative informationcorresponding to the geolocation information accepted.
 22. The apparatusof claim 21 wherein the geolocation information includes at least one of(a) at least one country, (b) at least one region, (c) at least onestate, (d) at least one metro area, (e) at least one city, (f) at leastone town, (g) at least one postal zip code, and (h) at least onetelephone area code.
 23. Apparatus for serving an ad, the apparatuscomprising: a) an input for accepting geolocation information associatedwith a request; b) means for determining whether the ad has geolocationlanding page information corresponding to the geolocation informationaccepted; and c) means for serving the ad with a link to the geolocationlanding page if it is determined that the ad has geolocation landingpage information corresponding to the geolocation information accepted.24. The apparatus of claim 23 wherein the geolocation informationincludes at least one of (a) at least one country, (b) at least oneregion, (c) at least one state, (d) at least one metro area, (e) atleast one city, (f) at least one town, (g) at least one postal zip code,and (h) at least one telephone area code.